In Octavo, Boards, price Five Shillings and Sixpence. THE BALLADS AND SONGS OF AYRSHIRE, Illustrated with Sketches, Historical, Traditional, Narrative, and Biographical, Notes, &c., by JAMES PATERSON, and with Remarks by Captain CHARles Gray. "Few things are more delightful than a gossip about Old Songs, and the Editor who brings a work of this description under our notice, deserves our special thanks. In the Introduction, there are some interesting Notices of the Modern Musicians and Composers of Ayrshire." "A tastefully edited and very interesting collection of Songs and Ballads. The selection is curious and good, and no lover of Scotch Songs ought to be without a copy. The Illustrative Notes and Sketches are highly interesting, and serve to throw considerable light on the ballad lore of the West." II. OBIT BOOK OF AYR 1306-1595. In 4to, with a Fine Frontispiece. Boards, price Six Shillings. THE OBIT-BOOK OF THE CHURCH OF ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST, from 1306 to 1595. Edited, with a Translation and an Historical Sketch, Illustrative Notes, &c., by JAMES PATERSON. Alike interesting to the Antiquary and useful to the Genealogist."-ONLY TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY COPIES PRINTED. 66 THE "THE POEMS OF THE SEMPILLS OF BELTREES 66 THE POEMS OF HAMILTON OF BANGOUR;" THOMAS GEORGE STEVENSON, Antiquarian and Historical Bookseller, 87 PRINCES STREET. SOLD BY JOHN DICK, BOOKSELLER, AYR. M.DCCC.LII. 106 PREFACE. It is precisely five years since we wrote the Preface to the first volume of this work,--the twelfth part of an average long life! We do not say that the whole of this protracted period has been devoted to the undertaking. On the contrary, lengthened intervals occurred, during which no progress whatever was made with it. This arose out of events which cannot well be explained. The want of a Publisher-engaging to run the risk of the second volume-occasioned an unavoidable and serious delay. Nearly two years elapsed before Mr. STEVENSON, the publisher, came forward, and undertook the responsibility of completing the work. Since that time, we have been enabled to move on-slowly, or more expeditiously, according to circumstances. No doubt, the attention required in managing the business of a printing-office, however small, has been a material drawback; still, when the magnitude of the undertaking is considered, the time consumed in bringing it to a close may not appear so extraordinary after all. To us it has been, in one sense, a labour of pleasure, but, in another, of much anxiety; and, we may add, of considerable pecuniary loss. The work is of such a nature that it could not be expected from the sale,local and limited as the demand for such books usually is,-to yield anything like a remuneration for the research involved in it; yet, having put our hand to the plough, we could not think of abandoning it, even in |